*Jean McCabe
ENNIS retailer and Retail Excellence Ireland CEO Jean McCabe has branded an expected 79c increase in the minimum wage to €14.94 a “terrible move for business”.
Ms McCabe, who owns Willow in Ennis, was speaking after Budget 2027, which REI said had placed another significant cost on retail businesses without measures to help them absorb it.
The expected increase would bring the minimum wage to €14.94 and represents a 48% rise in the rate since 2020, according to REI.
“It’s easy for the Government to set a cost and leave the shopkeeper to pay it, with no thought for what it does to that business,” Ms McCabe said.
“Retailers are bitterly disappointed that no offset has come with any of these increases.”
She said the real cost of the minimum wage increase was greater than 79c per hour as businesses attempted to maintain pay differentials between staff.
“We want to look after our people. But the real cost of the minimum wage is far above 79c per hour as businesses try to maintain pay differentials, and many simply can’t absorb it. When they can’t, hours and jobs go, doors close and those are the very jobs and people we’re trying to look after,” she said.
REI said retail is one of the largest private-sector employers in the State and, along with hospitality, accounts for around half of all minimum wage workers.
Before the Budget, REI had called for employers’ PRSI to be reduced on lower wages, which it said would be worth about €1,000 per full-time employee next year, and for PRSI to be removed entirely for workers under 25.
Ms McCabe said these measures were important for protecting employment opportunities for young people.
“A part-time job in a shop is where young people build the skills they need for life, and those jobs are disappearing,” she said.
“The Government had the chance to protect them and has done nothing. The warning signs are impossible to ignore.”
She pointed to figures from Deloitte indicating that retail insolvencies were up 54% this year, while there were 10,800 fewer people working in retail than a year ago and around 400,000 working hours per week had been lost.
“The Government is looking at the headline hourly rate and ignoring the jobs, hours and livelihoods behind it,” she said.
Ms McCabe warned that further business closures could leave empty units on main streets and affect communities across Ireland.
“Good businesses will close as a result of this budget. Every one that does will leave an empty unit on a main street and a gap in the life of a town. Communities across Ireland will be living with the consequences of Budget 2027 long after today,” she said.
